DESCRIPTION (adapted from the application): The purposes of the Clinical Science Research Core (CSR Core) are: 1) to enhance and facilitate nutrition-related clinical research, 2) to provide training for young investigators in such research, and 3) to provide basic researchers with ready access to clinical research technology and research subjects so that hypotheses based on non-human models can be tested in humans. Moreover, it is expected that the CSR Core will play a central role in stimulating patient-oriented nutrition research at Washington University. The CSR Core will provide state-of-the-art methods and services designed to assess body composition, energy expenditure, and substrate metabolism. Core personnel will offer assistance in study design, study subject recruitment, performance of experimental protocols, sample processing, and data analysis. The consolidation of these services within one Core will help ensure overall quality, limit inappropriate research efforts, increase cost-effectiveness and facilitate, the use of a range of services (expertise and methods) that would otherwise be difficult for investigators to obtain.